Muhammed Choye

The Don McMath Foundation

Investment In Knowledge: The DMF is a not-for-profit organisation, whose mission it is to provide free education for children from the poorest Gambian families. Children living within a 3-mile radius of The Don McMath Foundation school in Kotu make up our student catchment. Families are vetted to ensure that only the most disadvantaged, those that genuinely can't afford school fees, benefit. As far as we are aware we are the only completely free school in The Gambia. Gambia is one of the poorest nations in the world ranking 172nd out of 187 countries in the United Nations Development Programme's 2014 human development index. Poverty is widespread, pervasive and predominantly rural. Approximately three quarters of the rural population is classified as poor. Roughly 2% of the Gambia's 1.5 million population are refugees, and only around 40% of over 15 year olds are able to read and write. This situation is appalling and is something The Don McMath Foundation is trying to address. The whole venture started in 2001 with Anne McMath going on holiday to the Gambia and noticing that there were a lot of children on the streets every day, because their parents could not afford to send them to school. She started sponsoring a couple of children at local schools and encouraged friends to sponsor a few more. This grew until we decided that we should open a school ourselves and help lots of children instead of just one or two. The money for the running costs for the school is raised by supporters of the charity who sponsor the children each year. Nearly all the teachers at the school have been trained locally at the Gambian College which has a teacher training facility. We are a registered charity in both the UK (Registered Charity Number 1100164) and in The Gambia (Number 733/2002) and so can claim back tax on money received from UK tax payers. Our accounts can be read here Please support this worthwhile cause and help a young person reach their full potential.